Meeting of the ARIN Board of Trustees — 18 August 2026

Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada

 

Attendees

• Nancy Carter, Chair
• John Curran, President & CEO
• Dan Alexander, Board Trustee
• Ron da Silva, Board Trustee
• Peter Harrison, Board Trustee
• Lee Howard, Board Trustee
• Hank Kilmer, Treasurer
• Tina Morris, Vice Chair (virtual)
• Robert Seastrom, Board Trustee
• Chris Tacit, Secretary

Staff

• Michael Abejuela, CLO
• Erin Alligood, CHRO
• Alyssa Arceneaux, Board Operations Mgr., Scribe
• Garth Dubin, CSDO
• Richard Jimmerson, COO
• Christian Johnson, CISO
• Brian Kirk, CFO
• John Sweeting, CXO

ARIN Board of Trustees Executive Session. The Chair called an Executive Session at 8:15 am MT.

1. Welcome, Agenda and Conflict of Interest Disclosure Review.

The Chair welcomed all and appreciates all making the effort on theme day. She called the meeting to order at 9:04 am MT. She reminded that the Board should try to abstain from abstaining. She asked if there were any changes needed to the agenda. There were no changes to the agenda, and it was adopted as circulated.

2. Consent Agenda

The Chair noted that the consent agenda motion will also approve the new strategic plan that was included with the Strategic Planning Committee’s report. There were a number of comments on Consent Agenda documents, but no documents were pulled from the Consent Agenda.

• Approval of the Minutes of April 19, 2026. (Exhibit A)
• Q1 & Q2 2026 Financial Statements. (Exhibits B, C)
• Q1 & Q2 2026 Investment Report. (Exhibits D, E)
• Annual Security Audit Update. (Exhibit F)
• Ombudsperson Report from ARIN 57 and Memo. (Exhibits G, H)
• Management Continuity Plan and Sabbatical Lessons Learned. (Exhibits I, J)
• Internet Infrastructure Strategic Grant Program. (Exhibit K)
• Customer Satisfaction Survey Report. (Exhibit L)
• ARIN Board Committee Reports. (Exhibits M, N, O, P, Q, R)
• Revised Strategic Plan included with Strategic Planning Committee’s report.

It was moved by Lee Howard, seconded by Rob Seastrom, that:

“The ARIN Board of Trustees approves the Consent Agenda, as written.”

The President stated that where time allows, he would like to further discuss the ombuds report — scope of the program, retention of the program, publishing of the report, etc. He also noted that that an RFP will go out after the next Board meeting for ombuds services.

The motion carried, via acclamation, with no abstentions or oppositions.

3. ARIN 2025 Form 990 and 990T Filing.

(Exhibit S)

The CFO presented the 990 form that ARIN is required to file to the IRS. ARIN worked with CLA, ARIN’s auditor, on compiling the form. A couple of adjustments were needed after it was presented at the Finance Committee. Voting members will be changed to 10, as the former Chair resigned his Board Officer position, not his Board position.

It was moved by Ron da Silva, and seconded by John Curran, that:

“The ARIN Board of Trustees, based on the recommendation from the ARIN Finance Committee, having reviewed ARIN’s 2025 IRS Form 990 and 990T, accepts these forms as amended, and directs the President to file them with the IRS.”

The President reminded the Board that we do report lobbying numbers but most of this is done through education and outreach, not specific legislation or regulation.

The motion carried, via roll call vote (10-0).

4. Presentation of the ARIN 2025 Audit Report.

(Exhibits T, U)

The CFO noted that this is the second year that CLA has performed the Audit for ARIN. There were no concerns or questions from the Finance Committee.

It was moved by Lee Howard, and seconded by Peter Harrison, that:

“The ARIN Board of Trustees hereby accepts the 2025 Auditors report and 2025 Audited Financial Statement, as presented by the ARIN Finance Committee.”

The motion carried, via roll call vote (10-0).

5. Community Grant Program Update.

(Exhibit V)

The CXO stated the Grant Program Committee met last week and completed their selections. The Board Chair and Randy Bush were both part of this selection committee where 2 out of 10 applications were selected. All committee members agreed that these were the only 2 to get grants this year based on all the applications that were submitted, though the total amount of the two grants is less than what was budgeted.

It was moved by Hank Kilmer, and John Curran seconded, that:

“The ARIN Board of Trustees approves of funding the recommended grants.”

The motion carried, via roll call vote (10-0).

6. ARIN IPv6 Task Force

(Exhibit W)

The CEO presented a draft Charter to create a IPv6 Task Force. He met with Ms. Morris and Mr. Howard and used that meeting to put together a draft Charter. This Task Force will not be permanent but will contain 3 voting members and will conclude its activities by 2028.

It was moved by John Curran, and seconded by Tina Morris, that:

“The ARIN Board of Trustees approves the formation of the ARIN IPv6 Task Force and adopts the Charter, as amended.”

The President asked that it get adopted as is, and we will assign a staff person as appropriate. One of the first items for the Task Force would be to review the Charter. It was asked if two years were needed and the President stated his preference is for the Task Force to complete earlier than two years rather than to extend but could live with one year.

It was agreed to amend the Charter, to have the Task Force end by 2027, with the Board remaining open to extending after review.

The motion carried with no abstentions.

The President asked for volunteers for the committee. Mr. Howard, Ms. Morris and Mr. Seastrom volunteered for the Task Force and observers are always welcome. Mr. Howard will serve as Chair of this Task Force.

7. Registry Control Plane Proposal.

(Exhibit X)

The COO and CSDO reviewed the registry incident from last year, which had subsequently caused a discussion amongst the Board and on the community mailing list. ARIN began taking immediate mitigation steps — process and system adjustments and work began on the Registry Control Plane design. The CSDO showed the existing system architecture and the shared components across our current system. ARIN brought in an auditor to check the existing state of our systems against the 10 future-facing criteria established by the Board before any work begins on the Registry Control Plane. The auditor used the 10 criteria to rate our current systems as either pass or fail for each. The team demonstrated how a new 18-month development effort could uplift our software and systems to fully meet the expectations of the 10 criteria. The CSDO noted how the future system architecture would look after all the work is done and presented to the Board what could continue to be done in the future, including having an audit done after this Registry Control Plane is completed. The COO would ask the Board to call the auditor in to complete a second audit to confirm all future-facing criteria had been integrated into our systems after the work has been done.

The COO stated that ARIN has been looking at contractors to enable delivery of this initiative without impacting other commitments. This means looking for software developers and engineers that would work in person at the ARIN office in an integrated manner with ARIN staff involved in the project. He noted that ARIN has acquired two vendor proposals but within the last week ARIN has received additional information from a third vendor.

Mr. da Silva had a question about the funding for this project. Is the recommendation for ARIN to draw from the reserves over the next two years? Would expenses be included in this build out through 2027? The CFO answered that yes, this is the plan and it would be included in the 2027 budget plan and long-term budget forecasting.

Mr. Harrison stated that firstly he would like to ensure there are regular updates to the Board on this item and that staff would provide a more granular timeline (corresponding in line with Board meetings), to make sure that the work is being done. He also noted that as IPv6 becomes more and more a part of ARIN, ARIN’s respective processes and procedures will receive more community focus. The CSDO noted that continuous integration is and will continue to be done and there is long tenure within software development, but it is important that information is shared.

The President stated there would be a request to draw down from reserves to cover the cost of the project and that has been modeled and it would not drop us below our targeted investment reserves level. The CFO stated that the reserve limit is set for nine months and ARIN is right now holding at 13 months.

There was a fulsome discussion, about the security benefits, cost, milestones, and deliverables within the projected 18-month timeline, and the Board expressed their desire to better understand the milestones and deliverables.

The CSDO has estimates and deliverables for the phases but will not be able to supply detailed project plan until mid-September. Mr. Kilmer stated that by waiting until that time an SVP could be hired. The President asked if they could continue to move forward with hiring an outside consultant. The Board stated their agreement with this plan.

The CFO stated that at the September FinCom meeting he will be presenting the budget and the long-term forecasting, which will include this project.

Mr. Kilmer noted that the mission chartered was to have an emergency plan for all the manual processes and the President stated that RSD is running with these mitigations and will continue until this takes place. One more piece of the bigger picture is the strategic question of long-term architecture of the Internet number registry — should there be a common database for the global registry.

Mr. Howard noted that the RCSC has manual processes as one of its risks and needs to have it addressed as part of the phases. Mr. Alexander supports the user permission model and advancing that because he feels it is a major concern especially with large resource holders. Mr. Tacit followed up asking that this continues to be appear on Board agendas and how it relates to the Strategic plan overall.

It was agreed that a special meeting of the board would take place during the week of September 14, post finance committee meeting, to discuss/approve this project in advance of the next Board meeting in October.

The Chair called for a break at 10:37 am MT. Reconvened at 10:48 pm MT.

8. Updated Election Officer Job Description.

(Exhibits Y, Z)

The CEO noted that this job description appears in redline and clean format. He stated that these edits were made based on the comments made by the Board and the Governance Committee.

It was moved by John Curran, and seconded by Ron da Silva, that:

“The ARIN Board of Trustees approves the updated language for the Election Officer Job Description.”

Mr. Tacit asked if the current Elections Officer felt that these updates were helpful. Mr. da Silva was satisfied with the changes though the description is still convoluted.

The motion carried with no abstentions.

9. Board Meeting and Travel for 2027, including January 2027 Board Face to Face Meeting.

(Exhibit ZA)

The COO noted that the Board Bylaws ask for the Board to set the next year’s meetings at their August Board meeting. As noted, in the memo, the location has been selected but dates would need to be considered. After discussion January 12–13, 2027, and August 3–5, 2027, were set for the January Board meeting and August Strategic Workshop, respectively. The location for August meeting would be chosen in January by the incoming Board Chair.

10. Chief Legal Officer Update.

The Chief Legal Officer provided an attorney-client privileged brief to the Board.

11. Open Action Item List.

(Exhibit ZB)

The President noted that many of these Action Items will be closed after this week’s meeting. Previously 7 action items were completed from the April meeting to now. The President stated that this Action Item list and all Committee Action Item list are now maintained by the President.

12. Any Other Business.

The Chair called for any other business.

• Board Materials. It was noted that the reading for this meeting was extensive and we may want to think about how to cut down on this but also happy with how it helped to move the Board meeting along.
• Customer Satisfaction Survey. There was a discussion on the methodology employed and interpretation of results that seemed less than intuitive. It was pointed out by one Trustee that this survey provides operational information for ARIN staff, and the Board needs to be shown what is being done by ARIN within budget.

13. Executive Session.

The Chair entered into Executive Session at 11:31 am MT.

14. Adjournment.

It was moved by Lee Howard, and seconded by Rob Seastrom to adjourn. The meeting adjourned at 12:54 pm MT.